SUCCESS CAN HIDE THE PAIN

Having everything means nothing. Having every success you ever dreamed of means nothing. Having great wealth, fame and the freedom to do what the rest of the world only dreams about means nothing. Loving and being loved means nothing.

Is this what we learned this week when two of the most successful Americans, Kate Spade and now Anthony Bourdain — so familiar to us all that they were like friends we didn’t know — killed themselves? What we learned for sure, and need to understand, is that depression is as real a disease as cancer — and can be as potentially lethal — even though sufferers often go to great lengths to hide it.

You can’t hide cancer for long.

You CAN hide depression until it kills you. Bourdain’s friends, like many of Spade’s friends, didn’t see it coming.

“I was just speaking with him last week,” said Sasquatch Fitness owner Claude Joly, who had met Bourdain (photo) at Renzo Gracie Academy, where both practiced Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

“All seemed very well. (Bourdain) mentioned he was doing lots of traveling, but everything was good. Then again, I know he’d had a difficult life,” Joly said.

Both Bourdain and Spade talked about how we should never give up. Until they both did. Both hanged themselves and were found by their best friends.

Both suffered from depression. Both had young daughters at the most vulnerable of ages.

And yes, both were deeply loved. Thing is, sometimes love isn’t all you need.